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My Cochlear Implant and the Bumper Rotation

RUSH: This is Lee, Leesburg, Virginia, you are next on the Rush Limbaugh program. Hi.

CALLER: Hi, Rush. How you doing?

RUSH: I'm good.

CALLER: Hey, Rush, that's great.

RUSH: Thank you very much.

CALLER: I've been a longtime listener of your program and I have noticed something, and I had an observation, and I kind of had a question related to that observation. It seems to me since your last operation for the cochlear implant that the repertoire of your bumper music seems to have expanded quite a bit. And kind of a two-part related question is that, is that observation correct? And then, second thing I wanted to know about your cochlear implant that really interests me is, I'm a musician, so sound and the sculpting of sound is very important to me, and I wanted to know if you can tell with your implant the difference between tone and content. Say, for instance, if I say to you, "I love hot chocolate," can you tell the difference between that and "I loooove hot chocolate." Does the cochlear implant give you the opportunity to realize that and understand that difference in tone?

RUSH: Yes. I can understand context in the spoken word. When you say, "I loooove hot chocolate," I hear you say that instead of, "I love hot chocolate."

CALLER: Oh, well, that's what I was wondering. That's wonderful. I mean, being a musician, I really appreciate sculpting of sound and how, if that were missing from my life, I would feel poverty and --

RUSH: Well, I have to tell you something. Your question about bumper music, the official roster has not expanded. Now, there are certain broadcast engineers who take advantage of my inability to recognize all music and bring some of their favorites in from home now and then and try to sneak it by me.

CALLER: Ohhhh. Okay. (laughing)

RUSH: Now, as to music, I've not explained this part. When this program started music was a huge part of this program, musical parodies, and using current music, hip, current music and relating it to issues. This is something I did from the very beginning of this program and it set this program apart. I can remember the early program drill, "What are you doing playing records? This is a talk show? You're supposed to be interviewing guests and taking phone calls. What the hell are you doing playing Kennedy parodies?" They didn't understand it for a while.

But from the moment I lost my hearing, that aspect is gone. I can't hear current music. I mean, I can hear it, but I don't know the melody of any song that I haven't heard before, and lyrics are practically impossible for me unless I've got them written in front of me. I'm talking about music I don't know. That's one of the biggest hits this program took as a result of my losing my hearing is that the musical -- I mean during the program, not the bumpers, but during the actual program content. Since I'm not able to recognize any current music it's not a part of the show anymore, and to me that's a big disappointment, a huge hit.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Now, speaking of the bumper rotation. This is a song that's been in it for a long time, but we haven't had it in a long time. It's somehow magically found its way back into the rotation. And, yes, I recognize it plain as day. I'm drawing a mental block. It's not Summer Samba by Walter Wanderley. It's Horst Jankowski, that's right, Horst Jankowski, Walk in the Black Forest. It's from the sixties, exactly right. (interruption) Yeah, it was, because every bumper song in the rotation, practically every one I chose from my own personal preferences and those I thought would sound good used as bumpers.

I haven't picked a bumper song since I lost my hearing. We don't have a current tune in the bumper rotation 'cause I don't know any of it well enough to know whether it sounds good or not, and nobody on the staff has volunteered to help. So we're stuck with bumper music not... (interruption) I know. There isn't any current music worth being in the bumper rotation, right? Right. Unless we decided to challenge it lyrically. Okay, that's good for Horst. That's good.